@warbidden // rows of faces marked by trials and tribulations each, the height of legends within their reach // accepting.
Tick, tack, tick, tack, tick, tack...
From where he sits upon the captain’s seat, Nihlek stares down at the world promised to him. Rather, promised to all the eliksni that had heeded the call of Taniks to rally to this frozen realm, that had bent their knees and raised up Eramis as yet another Kell of Kells on what was to be a home for the homeless. A respite for the runaways. Somewhere that at last those so long and rightfully labelled Fallen by their foes could begin again, where they could take a pride in themselves that wasn’t built off of the corpses of those they raided and pillaged for survival’s sake.
“What a dream...” A sigh rattles out through his rebreather, and the tick-tacking of his claws against the armrest ceases as he examines the now numbed flesh of his hand. His grasp glitters with a coating of ice colder than any felt from Europa, with a chill that resonates in tune with the beating of his heart, and Nihlek wonders how long it has been since he felt warmth. Days? Months? How long ago had this dark gift been given to him in the service of the one now thoroughly consumed by it? How much longer before he succumbed to a similar fate? He rest his head against the same hand and cannot help the shiver that runs through him at the blossoming chill renewed. “One turned to nightmare, I fear. Great Machine, what have we done?”
Nihlek’s grim musings are interrupted by the muted signaling of his transponder, and with a grunt he answers the device, banishing the wistfulness and grief to the back of his mind. His crew needed strength and stability now that their House and hopes alike have been reduced to cinders, needed direction lest they mutiny in an effort to best ensure their own survival. Just as we always have, he chirrs bitterly, back to running. “Speak.”
“Incoming transmission from the Reef.” His first mate Etyle’s voice crackles over the communication with a weariness she doesn’t even bother trying to hide, and the façade he’d been prepared to put up falls just as quickly. “It’s the Spider.”
Nihlek offers her a comforting series of clicks (one she receives and returns softly in kind) before responding. “Patch it through, I’ll take it here.”
The captain glances out towards Europa. Feels the power of Darkness coating his veins in ice. Feels the hopelessness and grief for what could have been welling up from somewhere deep within.
“Earth. Take us to Earth, to the coordinates we intercepted from Taniks.” With a flexing of that numbed hand, Nihlek shatters the darkening ice that had gathered there and rises from his seat. “Our business with the Spider was concluded the moment Eramis died. We no longer have any use for his bargains or deals...” He folds his arms over one another as the feed from the Reef begins to come through. “Let us see what the Kell of Light has to say.”